Green Human Resources Management in the Hotel Industry: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Green human resources management (GHRM) has proven its efficiency in many industries and services, including the hospitality and hostel industries. Additionally, applying green human resources management practices reflects an organization’s environmental awareness and responsibilities. Given that the adoption of these practices cannot be accomplished without the appropriate support from decision makers, the aim of this paper is to analyze the relationships between green human resources management and the hotel industry, identify the possible barriers they may face and provide decision makers with the ability to choose the appropriate combination of GHRM practices based on an understanding the full picture presented in this study. This study depended on a systematic review technique to analyze the scientific production in this area. A total of 59 GHRM articles were extracted from Scopus and WoS and analyzed using three primary levels of analysis. This study revealed that: (i) Green human resources management practices can be summarized into four main categories (employees, marketing systems and corporate social responsibility, leadership and management, and organizational behavior and culture); (ii) the importance of green human resources management goes beyond environmental objectives; and (iii) there are significant barriers that should be taken into consideration when applying GHRM practices in the hotel industry.